Supreme Court blocks Republican-favored Missouri election map, ending legal whiplash

There was confusion over the map due to multiple legal tracks being pursued.

The Supreme Court has blocked Missouri Republicans from moving forward with a U.S. House map that the state's highest court had already invalidated ahead of the November election.

In a brief unexplained order, and over no noted dissent by any justices, the court granted a request by a Democrat-backed advocacy group to pause a lower federal court order that greenlit the GOP-favored map just days ago.

The decision likely ends the legal whiplash over Missouri's map two months before the high-stakes midterm election takes place. It also hands Democrats a small victory in the nationwide mid-decade redistricting war.

State Republicans could still technically attempt to ask the justices to take the case for oral argument and decide the merits, but that process would very likely exceed the time left before the vote -- and the Democratic-favored map would remain in effect in the meantime, the order indicated.

State election officials will now bear the brunt of having to quickly lay groundwork for administering the vote with a district map different from the one used in the primary.

The group that sought to preserve the 2022 map calls this the "definitive answer" in Missouri for November.

"The law is the law, the Missouri constitution is clear as was the Missouri Supreme Court," Richard von Glahn, executive director of the group pushing the referendum vote, People Not Politicians, said in a statement. "Over 305,000 Missouri voters -- Republicans, Democrats and Independents took action to block this political power grab last fall. People, not politicians, will have the final say when they vote NO on Proposition A this November."

The state's Republican-controlled legislature last year passed into law a new congressional map that redrew the district currently held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver to lean Republican as part of a nationwide mid-decade redistricting push encouraged by President Donald Trump.

But Democrats and other opponents of the new map filed legal challenges, pushing for a ballot initiative to put the new map up for a vote in November. They also argued that if the new map was put up for a referendum vote in November, that would suspend the law establishing the new map unless voters approved it and that Missouri's elections should be held under the state's older congressional map.

Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins initially decided in early August that he would not certify the referendum to the ballot, saying he had determined it was unconstitutional. People Not Politicians successfully appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court, which ruled to block the new map from being used in November and to allow the ballot initiative to proceed.

Republicans appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking intervention as they simultaneously pursued a second-track legal front.

Just days ago, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who oversees Missouri federal courts, declined to intervene in the dispute over Missouri's congressional map.

Earlier this month, a federal district court judge directed the state to use the GOP-favored map, which was used in the primary, even though the state's highest court directed the opposite.

Missouri Republicans had pushed back against a change to the map, saying in a court filing that a change-up at this late hour would "disenfranchise millions of primary voters" and "unilaterally void a congressional map before a statewide vote."

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